Packaging machine



June 5, 1945.

S. R. HOWARD PACKAGING MACHINE Filed April 15, 1941 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 June 5, 19 45. 5, HOWARD 2,377,687

. PACKAGING MACHINE Filed April 15, 1941 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 4% QIMQM.

June 5, 1945. s. R. HOWARD PACKAGING MACHINE Filed April 15, 1941 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 June 5, 1945- s. R. HOWARD 2,377,637

' PACKAGING MACHINE Filed April 15, 1941 4Sheets-S heet 4 61 INVENTOR.

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d 5 1% QLMKLQJL Patented June 5, 1945 PACKAGING MACHINE Stanley R. Howard,

Pneumatic Scale Corporation,

Milton, Mass., assignor to Limited, Quincy,

Mass.,-a corporation of Massachusetts Application April 15, 15241, Serial No. 388,585

3 Claims.

This invention relates to a packaging machine.

The invention has for one of its objects to provide novel, simple and efilcient apparatus for making containers such as paper bags and for handling and conveying the same to enable succeeding operations to be performed thereon, such as filling and closing the same in separate machines.

A further object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved packaging machine and particularly a bag forming machine, for producing relatively light weight bags or cartons and in which provision is made for facilitating the handling of such bags at the discharge station of the machine and upon a discharge conveyer.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved packaging machine in which provision is made for providing the formed bag with at least a. partial load of the material being packaged immediately after the formation thereof and prior to its discharge from the machine whereby the bag is rendered sufficiently weighted to enable the bag to maintain its shape and to be more accurately controlled and handled during its discharge from the machineand in the subsequent transference thereof to other machines.

With these general objects in view and such others as may hereinafter appear, the invention consists in the packaging machine and in the various structures, arrangements and combinations of parts hereinafter described and particularly defined in the claims at the end of this specification. 1

In the drawings which illustrate the preferred embodiment of the invention, Fig. 1 is a plan view of a packaging machine embodying the present invention; Fig. 2 is an enlarged side elevation, partly in cross section, of the discharge station of the machine; Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 showing the parts in a different position of operation; Fig. 4 is a front view of the mechanism shown in Fig. 2; Fig. 5 is a plan view detail of the mechanism for stripping the carton from its forming block; and Fig. 6 is an end view detail, partly in cross section, of the mechanism shown in Fig. 5. i

In general, the present invention seeks to provide a novel, simple and practical packagin machine for forming containers of light weight material. such as paper. and for depositing at least a partial load of the material to be packaged.

therein immediately after formation so that successive containers may be discharged upon a dischargeconveyer in a form capable of being conveyed to a succeeding and independently operating machine, such as a weighing machine or a top closure machine. The light weight containers. such as paper bags, thus loaded possess suflicient definiteness of shape, rigidity and stability to enable them to be handled by the conveyer in a practical manner analogous to that in which relatively stiff cartons may be handled, so that they may be successfully and economically fed to a succeeding machine in the packaging line with minimum interruption in the operation thereof.

Referring now to the drawings, the illustrated and preferred embodiment of the present packaging machine, as shown in Fig. 1, includes container forming mechanism comprising an intermittently rotated spider It provided with a plurality of horizontally disposed forming blocks it! about which the blanks ll of container forming material are wrapped to form a bag or carton. Except as to details hereinafter described, such bag forming mechanism may and preferably will comprise bag forming mechanism now upon the market, such as ,is illustrated in the United States Patent to Hesser,,No. 1,020,821, dated March 19, 1912. As herein shown, such mechanism may include an operating station indicated generally at It in which provision is made for cutting ofl a predetermined length of bag forming materialdrawn from a supply roll 20 thereof by feed rolls 22 and for feeding the blank into operative posi-' tion beneath the forming block 12. Provision is also made for applying strips of adhesive 24 to the web of material as it passes the adhesive applying rollers 26 prior to being cut to length by the reciprocatory knife 28 and advanced into the position shown in Fig. l. The cut-off blank is positioned between guides 30, 32 which form part of a folding mechanism adapted to cooperate with the forming block l2 to wrap the blank [4 about the block, as clearly shown and described in the patent to Hesser, above-referred to. A top presser member 34, see Fig. 2 is then arranged to descend to firmly press the seam formed by the overlapping and adhesively secured edges of the blank.

The spider I0 is thereafter rotated to present the forming block it to an operating station indicated generally at 36 where the extended ends of the blank are folded upon the block to form the bottom of the bag, and as herein shown, this operation is performed by twopairs of folder plates, one pair 38, 40 being arranged to rock in a horizontal plane and the second pair 42 being arranged to rock in .a vertical plane. An end presser 44 is then operated to firmly press the folded bottom of the bag against the block to set .ls moved over the block the glue. An additional presser 48 is provided at the next operating station whereupon the spider is rotated to present the forming block to the discharge station indicated generally at 50 where the bag is removed from the forming block.

Referring now to Figs. 2, 3 and 4, as therein shown, the discharge station 50 includes a rotatable pocket 52 arranged to receive the formed bag as it is removed from its forming block and to be moved from a horizontal position in alignment with the forming block I2, as shown in Fig. 2, to a vertical position, as shown in Fig.3, to present the formed bag in alignment with filling mechanism, indicated generally at 54. Thereupon the filling mechanism is operated to deposit at least a partial load of material in the bag, and thereafter the bottom of the pocket is opened to permit the bag to fall by gravity to a discharge conveyor 58 to be conveyed away from the machine and to be delivered to a succeeding ma chine in the packaging line such as a weighing or filling machine where the remainder of the load may be introduced into the bag. Although, as herein described, a partial load is introduced into the bag prior to its discharge from the machine, it will be apparent that for some purposes the bag may be provided with its entire load at the discharge station whereupon the filled bag may be delivered by the conveyor directly to a top closing machine.

In the illustrated machine, as shown in Fig. 2, provision is made for stripping the bag from its horizontally disposed forming block and depositing the bag into the rotatable pocket 52 disposed in alignment therewith. The stripping fingers 60 are carried by a slide member 62 arranged to be reciprocated upon a slide bar 64 supported upon the machine frame. The stripping fingers 60 are rockingly mounted upon the slide member 62 and are arranged to yieldingly engage the edges of the open end of the bag while the latter is disposed upon the block and to slide the bag of! the block into the pocket 52. As herein shown, the slide member may be reciprocated through connections from a cam 65 mounted upon a cam shaft 68 forming part of the driving mechanism of the machine as will be hereinafter described. A cam roller I0 carried by one arm 12 of a two-armed lever, cooperates with the cam 65 and a second arm I4 is connected to the slide member 62 by a swivelled block II. A spring I3 is arranged to urge the roller I0 against its cam. The slide member 62 is provided with a depending yoked portion '16 arranged to engage a rectansular slide bar I8 in order to maintain the slide member 62 in an upright position. In the operadisposed in aneutral position, as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2,v out o t e path of the forming blocks !2 I "rng f t intermittent movement of the spider I0. When a forming block has come to rest at the discharge station, the stripping unit to present the stripping fingers in operative relation to the edges of the bag whereupon the stripping unit is advanced to remov the bag from the block and to deposit it in the pocket 52. Thereafter, the stripping unit nected to the arm I is again retracted to its neutral position to permit the spider to make another intermittent movement, and to provide clearance for the horizontally disposed pocket 52 to be rotated to its vertical position, as will now be described.

Referring now to Figs. 2 and 4, the rotatably mounted pocket 52 comprises a box shaped holder open at one end and having'a hinged bottom plate at its other end. The pocket is supported upon shafts 82, 84 secured to opposite sides of the pocket in flanges 86, 88, and the shafts are journaled in bearings 90, 82 carried by brackets 94, 96 respectively. The latter are mounted upon upright bars 98, I00 attached to the frame I02 of the machine, as shown in Figs. 2 and 4. Provision is made for rotating the pocket through an arc of degrees from a horizontal to avertical position and return, and as herein shown, the shaft 82 is provided with a gear I04 arranged to cooperate with a rack I06 slidably mounted in a member I 06, secured to the bracket 94. The rack I06 is arranged to be reciprocated to eflect rotation of the pocket as above described, through connections from a cam IIO mounted fast upon a camshaft II2. A cooperating cam roll I I4 is carried by one arm II 6 of a bell crank pivotally mounted upon a rocket shaft H8. The second arm I20 of the bell crank is connected by a link I 22 to one arm I24 of a second bell crank, the second arm I 26 of which is connected by a link I28 to the end of the rack I06. A spring I21 connected to the arm II6 serves to hold the roller II4 against its cam.. From the description thus far, it will be observed that a formed bag is stripped from its forming block at the discharge station and deposited in the rotary pocket while the latter is in its horizontally disposed position whereupon the pocket is rotated 90 degrees to present the pocket in alignment with the filling mechanism 54. As herein shown, the filling mechanism is supported upon an upright bracket I29 and may comprise a. feed hopper I30 having an inlet at its upper end in communication with a supply hopper I32 and an outlet at its lower end in communication with a discharge funnel I34. The feed hopper is provided with a plurality of radially arranged blades I36 rotatably mounted upon a central shaft I38, journaled in removable side plates I40, I42 of the hopper. The blades I 36 separate the hopper interior into equal compartments and provision is made for intermittently rotating the feeding blades to empty the material from one of the measuring compartments during each cycle of being packaged prior to discharging the formed bag from the machine. As herein shown, a ratchet I44 mounted fast upon the shaft I38 is arranged to be operatively engaged by a pawl I48 carried by a lever I48 loosely mounted adjacent the ratchet upon the shaft I 38. Provision is made for rocking the lever I48 to effect intermittent rotation of the blades I36 through connections including a cam I50 mounted fast upon a cam shaft I5I, and a cooperating roller' I52 carried by one arm I54 of a two-armed lever. The second arm I56 of the two-armed lever is connected by a link I58 to one arm I60 of a bell crank pivotally mounted in the second arm I83 of the bell crank being connected by a link I62 to the lever I48. A spring 54 operates to hold the roller I52 against its cam.

After the bag has load of the material being by gravity onto the discharge conveyer belt 58. As herein shown, the hinged gate 80 is normally full lines one arm I10 of a two-armed lever pivotally mounted on a rocker shaft I12 iournaled in the bracket I29. The second arm I14 of the twoarmed lever is connected by a link I16 to one arm I18 of a cam lever pivotally mounted on a rocker shaft I10. The second arm I of the cam lever is provided with a roller I02 which cooperates with a cam I84 mounted fast on a cam shaft I85. A spring I80 connected to the arm I00. is arranged to urge the cam roll I82 against its cam. Thus. in the operation of the machine, the arm I engages the roller I68 on the extended arm I51 and operates to rock the gate 00 from its closed position, as shown in in Fig. 3 to in dotted lines. Upon the release of the bag from the pocket, the arm I10 is returned to its lowered position whereupon the pocket is rotated to again present the pocket in its horizontal position in alignment with a succeeding forming block.

As hereinbefore stated, upon release of the bag from its pocket, the bag is guided through a chute 55 to fall upright upon the continuously moving conveyer belt 58. The chute 55 is supported beneath the pocket and in alignment therewith by a member I00 extended from the frame of the machine, as illustrated in Fig. 3, and the chute is preferably closed on three sides, the fourth side being open to permit the bag to be conveyed therethrough upon the conveyer belt. In order to guide the bag on the fourth or open side during its fall from the pocket 52, a movable guide member I92 is provided to form the fourth side of the chute during the discharge of the bag from the pocket and which is arranged to be retracted in timed relation to the operation of the machine to release the bag from the chute. As herein shown, the movable guide member I92 is attached to a slide member I94 which is slidably mounted in a bracket I86 extending from the conveyer side frame. The slide member is arranged to be reciprocated through connections including a cam I98 fast on the cam shaft I85, a cooperating cam roller 200 carried by one arm of a two-armed lever pivotally mounted on the rocker shaft I19, and a second arm 202 of the two-armed lever provided with a bifurcated end arranged to embrace a pin 204 extending from the slide member I94 as clearly shown in Fig. 3. A spring I95 operates to hold the roller 200 against its cam.

Referring now to Fig. l, the driving mechanism, as herein shown, comprises a clutch pulley 2I0 loosely mounted upon a short shaft 2I2 and which may be driven from an electric motor, not shown. The pulley 2I0 is detachably engageable with a pinion 2 fast upon the shaft 2I2 which is arranged to mesh with a gear 2I6 fast upon the end of the elongated drive and cam shaft I5I. The bag forming spider I0 has intermittent motion imparted to it through a Geneva mechanism of usual construction comprising a driver 220 fast upon a shaft 222, and a fourpoint drive shaft I5I through cooperating bevel gears 225, 220, a cross-shaft comprising the cam 55 and cooperating bevel gears 230,232. The

' paper feed and cut-off mechanism I8 is driven from the shaft I5I through a cross-shaft 234, bevel gears 235, 238 and bevel gears 240, 242, as illustrated in Fig. 1. The bottom folding mechanism is operated from the cross-shaft 234 through a cam 244 and the usual connections indicated generally at 245, reference being had to the Hesser Patent No. 1,020,821, hereinbefore its open position as shown referred to. for a more detailed description of such mechanism. The cam shaft I85, as herein shown, is driven through cooperating bevel gears 240, 200. The discharge conveyer 50 may be independently driven through any usual or preferred mechanism, not shown.

From the above description it will be seen that in the. operation of the machine, the formed bag is stripped from its forming block I2 at the discharge station and deposited into the rotat- 52 while the latter is in its horizontal position. Thereafter, the rotary pocket is turned upright and the bag disposed therein is provided with a partial load of the material being packaged. The bottom of the ably mounted pocket pocket is then opened to permit the weighted bag to fall by gravity through the discharge chute 56 and onto the continuously operated conveyer 58 to be discharged from the machine. During this time the spider I0 is rotated'to present a succeeding forming block with a formed bag thereon to the discharge station, and upon the discharge of the partially filled bag from the rotatably mounted pocket 52,, the latter is again rocked to its horizontal position to receive the succeeding bag from the forming block I2. as described.

From the description thus far, it will be observed that in the present machine light weight containers which heretofore have presented exceedingiy difllcult problems in handling, are provided with at least partial loads of the material to be packaged and by which the material of the bag is caused to assume a definite and predetermined rectangular shape and to possess sufficient weight and rigidity to enable the successive partially filled bags, a they are deposited upon the conveyer, to be moved in a line, and thus successfully fed into a succeeding machine in the packaging line, such for example, as to a weighing machine, and in the event that the load which has been introduced into the bag of the present machine comprises the full measured load, then the bags may be fed upon the conveyer directly to a top closing machine. This enables the present machine to comprise a simple machine and to avoid the necessity of timing and operatively connecting together the various bag making, bag filling and top closing machines in a single machine. This is conducive to simplification in the design and operation. of the machine and facilitates the packaging of material in bags in an economical and practical manner.

While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been herein illustrated and described, it will be understood that the invention. may be embodied in other forms within the scope of the following claims.

Having thus described the invention, what is I claimed is:

l. A packaging machine having in combination, a horizontally disposed bag supporting block rectangular in section and having its sectional dimensions substantially equal to the internal sectional dimensions of an opened and squared up bag so that the latter can be supported thereover, bag stripping means for stripping the opened and squared up bag from the block, bag holding means engaging an opened and squared up bag as it is stripped from the block operative to move the bag from a horizontal to an upright position and to support the bag in such upright position under a bag filling means, said bag holding means including movably. mounted bag supportingmeans, and means operative to move the bag supporting means to effect-the. release of the bag from; the bag holder after the bag has been at least partiallyfllled to permit it to'drop upon a conveyor.

2. A packaging machine having in combination, a horizontally disposed bag supporting block rectangular in section and having its sectional dimensions substantially equal to the internal sectional dimensionsv of an=opened and squared up bag so that the latter can be supported thereover, a bag holding pocket member rotatable from a horizontal position to a vertical position below abag filling means, said bag holding pocket J 3; Apa-ckaging machine having in combine tion, a horizontally disposed bag supportingbloek rectangular in section and having its sectional 'dimensions substantially equal to the internal see tional dimensions of bag so that the latter can be supported'therw over, a bag holding pocket member rotatable from below a bag filling means, said bag holding pocket member having an openable bottom wall, means for stripping the opened and squared up bag-from the block. and depositing it in said pocket member while the latter is in its horizontal position, operating means for rotating said pocket member from'the horizontal position into the vertical position below the bag filling means, means for thereafter opening the bottom wall of the pocket member to efiect the release of the bag from the pocket member after the bag has been at least partially filled to permit it to drop upon a conveyor and a three-sided guide chute for guiding the bag during its descent from the bag holding pocket member.

STANLEY R. HOWARD.

an opened and squared up a horizontal position to a vertical position 

